Gaze detection relates to the monitoring or tracking of eye movements to detect a person's gaze point. Various types of gaze detection systems and methods are known. For example products sold by Tobii Technology AB operate by directing near infrared illumination towards a user's eye and detecting reflection of the infrared illumination from the user's eye using an image sensor. Such a gaze detection system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,572,008. Other alternative gaze detection systems are also known, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,873,314 and 5,471,542.
A gaze detection system can be employed as a user input mechanism for a computing device, using gaze detection to generate control commands. Eye control can be applied as a sole interaction technique or combined with other control commands input via keyboard, mouse, physical buttons and/or voice. It is now feasible to add gaze detection technology to many mobile computing devices, smart phones and tablet computers, and personal computers. Most standard-type web cameras and cameras integrated into mobile computing devices have a resolution of a few million pixels, which provides sufficient optical quality for eye-tracking purposes, Most mobile computing devices and personal computers also have sufficient processing power and memory resources for executing gaze detection software.